Personal weblog of Ted Pavlic. Includes lots of MATLAB and LaTeX (computer typesetting) tips along with commentary on all things engineering and some things not. An endless effort to keep it on the simplex.

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Thursday, September 29, 2005

Greenhouse effect: A violation of human rights?

Inuit hunters threatened by the melting of Arctic ice plan to file a petition in December accusing the United States of violating their human rights by fueling global warming. The Bush administration has opted out of the Kyoto Treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

That's a pretty interesting spin on the problem. Call it a human rights violation. Make it equivalent to government depriving you of your civil liberties. Maybe that's easier to argue? The Inuit are one of the few people who could make this argument directly because of their lifestyle.

However, ...

The Inuit number about 155,000 people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia.

There American numbers are very small, so their legal options are much more limited. Additionally, it would be a tough argument to prove that their lifestyle is impacted so much by the U.S. alone that the U.S. deserves all of the blame.